Red Pepper Hummus (with Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

Everyone who knows me knows that I love, love, love, LOVE hummus. I eat it on everything: on top of sweet potatoes, as ‘dip’ for chips, raw veggies, on chicken, on eggs, on top of salad and plain, with a spoon. I add hummus to pasta sauces, I use it inside sandwiches, burgers, pitas… I even add it to my tacos ;-)

I just adore the hummus. Especially when I make it at home! Now, don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with (most) store-bought hummus, I buy them every once in a while; there are some lovely brands out there! However, the hummus you end up making at home always turns out so much better. And it’s fresher. From a nutrition point of view too, it’s much better for you too. A lot of store-bought hummus, for example, is made with highly-processed and often GM-rapeseed, canola, or soybean oil. Whereas if you make it at home, you can use extra virgin olive oil instead, which is higher in monounsaturated fats and is a lot tastier too, I think so at least! When you make hummus at home, you also end up using a lot less oil! And you know for sure that the oil that’s going into your hummus isn’t – or hasn’t gone – rancid over time (this happens in quite a few commercially-packed hummus’ or… hommi?) Another great thing about making your own hummus at home is that you can use fresh lemon juice, whereas store-bought varieties commonly contain bottled lemon juice. This isn’t a MASSIVE reason to avoid store-bought hummus of course, but it’s a good extra freshness point for homemade hummus, you know?

FINAL reason why making your own hummus is great is because you can flavor it however you want!!!! The one here, for example, I made using a roasted red pepper and paprika (see the video below). You can play around with your hummus and use sun-dried tomatoes and rosemary instead of the peppers too! Or alongside them. You can use roasted onions, olives, or mushrooms! You can add chilli to your hummus too. Basically, you can do whatever you want with your hummus to create your own blend of custom-made deliciousness, all in under 5 minutes! What’s not to love?

The recipe here is one of my all-time favorite. I actually make it every week! It doesn’t contain any protein powder, in case you were wondering, but it DOES feature protein – protein from the tahini butter and protein from the chickpeas so it’s nice and POWerful ;-)

I posted the original recipe, in illustration-form, in my instagram a few months back:

To make the hummus, all you do is blend those ingredients together and BOOM! You’re DONE. It’s THAT easy. Here’s the video, hope you like it :-)